The Kiss List Read online

  I finally stopped fighting against them and dropped my arms. “I can’t believe he said that. In front of all his friends.”

  They shared a look. The pity look I so hated.

  “He’s an egotistical jerk,” Hayley said. “I’ve always said you were too good for him. Now you can see I’m right.”

  I sulked down the porch steps. “I’m getting like ten different kinds of chocolate and the biggest Dr Pepper they have.”

  Kaitlyn and Hayley’s hands landed on my shoulders as we walked to Kaitlyn’s car.

  “We should get some shakes, too,” Hayley said.

  “I like where your head’s at,” I mumbled. I really did, I was just too sad to act enthusiastic.

  I’d just been told that I was bad at the one thing I loved to do more than anything: kissing. This day officially sucked.

  Chapter 6

  The next morning, I woke with a bad sugar hangover. The three of us were sprawled on my queen bed. Hayley’s hand was smashed against my cheek, and Kaitlyn’s long legs were draped over mine. Typical sleepover for us.

  I moved Hayley’s hand off to the side and stared at the ceiling fan. I could live without Dylan. I would live without him. It just . . . sucked. Big time.

  And really. “I am not a bad kisser.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Am I?”

  Kaitlyn moaned. “I wouldn’t know.”

  “He had to have been making it up.” I wiped some sweat from my forehead. When had it become so hot in the room? I shook out the top of my Maroon 5 T-shirt. “No way he would have stayed with me that long, kissed me that much, if he hated it.”

  Hayley threw her hand over my mouth. “Please stop talking.”

  I lowered her hand, but kept my hands wrapped around hers, holding it on my chin. “He was just trying to impress Raelynn,” I huffed. “But, why would saying I’m a bad kisser impress her?” I didn’t realize how hard I was squeezing Hayley’s hand until she shrieked and yanked it from my grasp.

  She propped herself up on her elbows. “Okay, seriously, stop talking about him. He’s a loser. We hate him. He could fall into a dark pit filled with rats and never come out for all I care.” She wiped some sleep from the corner of her eye. “Actually, I’d probably push him in there.”

  I turned onto my side, leaning on my arm. “What if I am?”

  “Are what?” Kaitlyn yawned and sat up. When she saw Hayley and me next to each other, she wiggled up on her stomach, her body between us, until her head was near ours. “Why are we up so early?”

  I waved my hand in front of my face. We all had horrible morning breath. Couples kissing when they got up in the morning was the biggest lie they showed on movies and TV. So gross.

  “It’s almost eleven,” Hayley said.

  Kaitlyn rubbed her eyes. “Anytime before noon on a weekend is early.”

  I stared at the wrinkled sheets. “What if he’s right?”

  Hayley threw her head down on my pillow and stared up at me, her bold eyes serious. “He’s wrong.”

  “How would you know?” I asked.

  Kaitlyn lay her head down on Hayley’s hip, so I shuffled so I could lay my head on hers. Always in our little triangle.

  “You can’t let this get to you,” Kaitlyn said. “I’m sure you’re a fabulous kisser.”

  “Or maybe you could use some work,” Hayley said. When I glared at her, she laughed. “Practice makes perfect.”

  I thought back over my year with Dylan. “I’ve had plenty of practice. I have to face the facts. I, Camille Collins, am a terrible kisser.”

  Hayley swore under her breath, then looked at the ceiling and mumbled an apology before she slapped my butt, which I’d conveniently placed near her. “There are no facts. You have one guy claiming that to impress another girl.”

  Kaitlyn cracked a smile. “You could prove him wrong.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “How? I’m not kissing him again. Not after what he said.”

  “But there are so many other guys you could kiss.” Kaitlyn wiggled her sculpted eyebrows. “How fun would that be? All in the name of science.”

  Hayley snorted. “What, you want her to just start asking guys to kiss her, and then rank her? Like a taste test, but in this case, a kiss test?”

  I stuck out my tongue. “No way I’m doing that.” I may like to kiss, but not just any random guy. Kisses were supposed to mean something.

  Kaitlyn patted the covers. “I gotta pee.” She shimmied out of bed and jogged to the bathroom attached to my room.

  My phone vibrated on the nightstand. With a grunt, I rolled over and snatched it. My blinking eyes tried to focus on the screen. I smacked my lips together. I definitely needed to apply some lip gloss and brush my teeth. And gargle.

  Tons of notifications from every social media outlet, plus text messages, filled my screen.

  “Uh, oh.” Hayley bit her lip and flew forward, trying to grab my phone from my hand.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, swatting her away.

  She stretched for my phone, which I held away from her. I pushed my hand into her face. Her lips moved along my palm. “Let’s have a technology-free day. It’ll be therapeutic, or some crap like that.”

  Kaitlyn trotted back to the bed, pausing and tilting her head to the side when she saw me and Hayley tangled together. “What did I miss?”

  “Hayley being weird,” I replied.

  Kaitlyn grinned, flashing her teeth. “So, what’s new?”

  Hayley glared at her. “We need to get Camille’s phone from her. It’s important. Like 9-1-1 important.”

  Kaitlyn’s eyes went wide at the same time she dove for me. Hayley had let me go when she saw Kaitlyn coming, so I took the opportunity to roll off my bed, barely going under Kaitlyn, and sprinted to the bathroom, slamming the door behind me.

  Hayley and Kaitlyn were pounding on the door seconds later.

  “Don’t do it,” Hayley said, her tone like that of a scolding mother. “I’m warning you, Camille. You need to listen to me.”

  If she’d just casually suggested a tech-free day, I probably would have been on board. But with her freaking out, I knew something was going on.

  I scrolled through my notifications, instantly regretting it. The news about me being a bad kisser had spread like wildfire. Everyone was talking about it online, tagging me in posts, making gifs and memes, and I suddenly hated life and everyone in it.

  The things people were saying about me were horrendous. They blamed it on the fact that I wouldn’t do more than kiss, so my experience was limited. Some guy said it was because I was “thick,” like being a little bigger boned and having muscles immediately qualified a person to suck at kissing.

  I hated people.

  I slammed the back of my head against the door.

  “You know they’re idiots, right?” Hayley said through the door. “I’ll beat them all up, I swear.”

  For some stupid reason, I couldn’t stop myself from reading everything. People who I thought were my friends were getting in on the jokes, saying how they just knew I’d be bad at it. A ‘friend’ of mine said it was because I was blonde. Seriously? They were just grasping at straws, and I knew it, but it still pissed me off.

  Liam had responded to that comment. But I thought blondes had more fun. I think there should be an investigation into the matter. There’s only been one accuser.

  Pete responded: That’s because there was only one guy willing to kiss her. But Dylan wised up.

  Liam: It took him over a year to wise up? Maybe he’s the one with the problem.

  Pete: Why are you siding with Camille? Everyone knows what a selfish brat she is. Only, he hadn’t used the word brat.

  Liam: I’m siding with the truth, which is yet to be found out.

  My fist wrapped around my phone like it wanted to break it in half. I was not a bad kisser. I needed to prove it. I was a summer away from my senior year, and I wasn’t going to enter it with everyone in the school thinking I couldn’t kis
s.

  But there was no way I was opening a kissing booth. If Liam had taught me anything, it was that guys could easily lie. No matter if the guy liked it or not, he could say he didn’t.

  I needed a list of guys who were honest. Who would tell the truth, no matter what. It would also help if it were someone I wanted to kiss. No, it had to be someone I wanted to kiss. I wasn’t dropping my standards over some stupid rumor Dylan started.

  Standing, I straightened my back and opened the door. Kaitlyn and Hayley scrambled to their feet and searched me over in a panic, trying to read my mood.

  “I’m making a kiss list.”

  They exchanged a wary glance.

  Kaitlyn licked her voluptuous lips, reminding me of the rumor that she was an excellent kisser. “What do you mean?”

  Pushing past them, I went back into my room and got some paper and a pen from my backpack. I sat down on my bed, using the cushioned headboard as a back support. I tucked my legs close to my chest and put the paper on my knee. On the top of the page, I wrote: Kiss List.

  Then I numbered underneath that, stopping at four. I needed four guys to prove Dylan wrong. I could have done more, but I honestly didn’t think I could find more than four guys I’d be willing to kiss for scientific purposes. Or any purposes.

  Kaitlyn and Hayley sat in front of me, the wariness still hanging on their faces.

  “I’m going to find four guys I want to kiss and who can prove Dylan wrong.”

  “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Hayley’s gaze flickered to Kaitlyn. “Back me up here.”

  I continued on like she hadn’t said anything. “There are plenty of guys over the years that I’ve wondered what it would be like to kiss. I don’t want a relationship with them, just a nice make-out session. But I can’t just walk up to a guy and ask him to kiss me. He could get the wrong idea. I have to somehow make it natural.”

  Kaitlyn patted my knee. “Do you think maybe you’re not thinking clearly? You’re just worked up over . . .”

  “Oh, I’m thinking clearly,” I snapped.

  Kaitlyn snatched her hand away, her eyes wide. “Yeah, okay. Totally clear.” She cleared her throat. “Go on.”

  I held up a finger. “First one is easy: Brady Tucker.”

  “I’ve actually wondered what it would be like to kiss him,” Kaitlyn said. She pointed at me. “Let me know how it goes and if I should cross him off my list.”

  Hayley didn’t look as excited. Her nose twitched up. “Why Brady?”

  He’d seemed open to the idea the night before when we danced. Yeah, he just wanted to make Raelynn mad, but Brady would do it. He’d be honest, too. He might side with me, even if I was a bad kisser, just to make Raelynn and Dylan feel like crap. We both had stakes in it. “Because he’s hot and he will.”

  I wrote his name on the list. I held up another finger. “Isaac Lee.”

  Kaitlyn gagged. “DJ Ice? Gross. He’s so . . . short.” Everyone was short compared to her, but I didn’t point that out.

  Hayley smirked. “Now, there’s a guy I could sink my teeth into.”

  He’d been the DJ at Brady’s party. He was the DJ at everyone’s party. He also didn’t give a crap what people thought of him. He’d tell me the truth, whether I wanted it or not. No way I’d ever date the guy, but he was good-looking. I couldn’t deny that fact.

  “Three?” Kaitlyn leaned back on her arms. She seemed to be loosening up to the idea.

  Hayley slapped a pillow against her face. “For the record, I still think this is the stupidest thing you’ve done to date, which is saying something.” She threw the pillow at my head. “But since there’s no way to stop you, I’ll give you some advice: you need someone with cred. Someone who everyone would believe and has kissed so many girls, he’d know what he was talking about.”

  At the same second, Kaitlyn and I declared: “Alejandro Ramirez.” We both laughed. He’d been a fantasy of ours for a long time. Just one hot make-out session, and nothing more. He’d be the steamy kind who would make you fan yourself afterward. Kaitlyn didn’t even mind that he was an inch shorter than her.

  Hayley smiled slyly. “Even I’d get on that train.”

  I added his name to the list. Just one more.

  “Who next?” Kaitlyn asked, rubbing her hands together.

  I twisted my lips to the side. “Okay, there’s been one guy I’ve been dying to kiss since middle school.”

  “Who?” Kaitlyn asked.

  “And why haven’t you mentioned it before?” Hayley asked. “I could have been mocking you about it all this time.”

  I shrugged, drawing circles on the top of my list. “He’s not well known at school. He’s kinda shy and quiet. But I’ve wanted to get my hands in his hair and kiss him good for a long time.” My hand hovered over the number four spot on my list. “He’s someone I could see having a relationship with.”

  Hayley narrowed her eyes, her finger flicking a daith earring. “Oh, brilliant idea. Let’s throw you into another relationship with a stupid guy who’s bound to break your heart and annoy the crap out of me.”

  I shook my head a little too fast. “Oh, I definitely don’t want a relationship right now. Maybe I’ll save him for last.” Maybe by then, I would have sorted through all my feelings about Dylan.

  Kaitlyn shook my arm. “Who? You’re killing me!”

  I leaned forward, a sultry smile tugging at my lips.

  Hayley held up her hand. “Please don’t say Liam Elliott.” She motioned to the trashcan in the corner of the room. “If you are, I might need that to throw up in.”

  I pulled back, not hiding the disgust on my face. “Liam? Ew. Why would you think that?”

  Kaitlyn took a hairband from her wrist and pulled back her curly hair. “Pretty sure the guy has had a crush on you since elementary school.”

  “What?” A weird, uncomfortable feeling crept over me, and I wanted it gone. “No way.”

  “Guys tease the girls they like,” Hayley said. “Which is lacking in the creative department, if you ask me.”

  “Yeah, in elementary school,” I said. “Not high school. If he’s still using that tactic, then I definitely don’t want anything to do with him.”

  Kaitlyn shook her fists in the air. “Enough about Liam! Who, Camille?”

  My smile came back. “Mason Payne.”

  They both sat there in stunned silence. Hayley folded her arms across her knees, which she had tucked into her chest. She opened her mouth, and then snapped it shut. She finally leaned over to Kaitlyn, her lips twisted to the side. “Are we supposed to know who that is?”

  Kaitlyn scrunched her nose. “The guy who ate paste in first grade?”

  I threw up my hands. “Why is that the one thing people remember about him?”

  Hayley clapped her hands together. “Oh, him!”

  “Because it was gross,” Kaitlyn said.

  Ignoring their stares, I added his name to the list. “Pretty sure his paste-eating days are over.”

  “Look on the bright side,” Hayley said, shoving my arm. “If he likes the taste of paste, maybe he’ll like the taste of your lips.”

  I shoved her so hard that she fell onto her side. Both Hayley and Kaitlyn laughed, but I read over my list. A kiss list. A perfect, beautiful, luscious kiss list.

  By the end of the summer, I intended to have every name crossed off the list.

  Chapter 7

  There were only two days left of junior year. The boring days where the teachers don’t know what to do because all the finals have been turned in, and none of the students want to be there. They really should cancel those days since they’re pointless.

  I had this small hope in the back of my mind that when I showed up at school, everyone would be so excited about the year being over that they wouldn’t be talking about me.

  I hated when I was wrong. Because I was. So wrong.

  Pete draped his puny arm around my shoulder the second I walked through the doors like
he’d been waiting to ambush me.

  “She’s here, everyone!” Pete shouted, surprisingly loud for such a scrawny guy. “The worst kisser in the school.”

  I tried to shove him away, but he kept a tight hold, making it hard to proceed with my original leg-demolishing plan I’d concocted the night of the party. So, I punched him in the stomach, not holding back. He grunted and released me. I narrowed my eyes at him. “How would you know? It’s not like I, or any other girl for that matter, would be desperate enough to kiss you.”

  He laughed loudly, but anger brewed in his hazel eyes. “Deflecting won’t work, Cami.”

  “I’m surprised you even know what that word means,” I said, my glare not going away. This day was officially going to suck.

  All morning, people whispered as I past them in the hall. Some were brave enough to shout vulgar things at me, but only when I was alone. If I had Hayley or Kaitlyn next to me, no one said a thing. But I couldn’t lug them everywhere I went, no matter how much I wanted to.

  On the way to fourth period, a freshman approached me, a smug smile on his lips. “Hey, sugar. If you need someone to practice kissing with, I’m willing to offer up my services.”

  Taking him by the scruff of the shirt, I lifted his tiny body off the ground. One of the perks of having muscles. Or being ‘thick.’ Gah, I hated that word.

  “Listen to me, boy,” I growled. “If you ever talk to me again, or talk about me to anyone, I will snap you in half.”

  His wide eyes blinked fast. All the color had drained from his face. His feet dangled, searching in vain for the floor.

  “Alright, Cam-Jam.” Liam pried the boy from my grip. The second his feet hit the floor, the freshman took off running.

  “She’s crazy!” he yelled, waving his arms in the air. “The bad kisser is crazy!”

  Liam sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I think that backfired.”

  I huffed, folding my arms close to me. “You think?”

  He motioned to the door of our fourth period class. “I hear we’re watching a movie.” He leaned in close and patted his backpack. “I snuck in some popcorn. If you’re a good little girl, maybe I’ll give you some.”